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Kerala Day 5 & 6 – Daybreaks

9 February 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

The last two days of our trip around Kerala started with very early mornings! Day five began when the river taxis woke us at daybreak but it was surprisingly a pleasure to be awake at that hour! We watched egrets picking bugs off the water lilies, rover taxis picking up workers, ladies out washing their laundry on stones beside the river. men either having a wash in the river or fishing and children heading off to school on their bikes. All before 7am!!

Graham was allowed, albeit briefly, to take over the helm as Captain, whilst the river was quiet. It made his day!!

After another sumptuous meal (breakfast), we headed back to base and disembarked, sad to leave the houseboat and promising that if we ever returned to Kerala, we’d stay longer and explore more.

Feast big enough for a King, Prince and the two wives!

Our next and final stop was Cochin, in the magnificent Crowne Plaza Hotel overlooking the Thevara Canal. We were on the 9th floor so had amazing views over the city as well as being able to watch the wheeling Kites that were right outside our window!

After checking in, David and Graham were taken by Jo our driver to look at Chinese style fishing nets and a quick tour of the local area.

Diane and I were far more interested in a decent coffee and slice of cake, followed by an invigorating massage in the hotel’s spa, both amazingly good! Suitably chilled and relaxed, we all headed to the Hotel’s rooftop bar for drinks and dinner before a 3am wakeup call!

Dinner was lovely, continental meals without spices!

The only downside to Kerala was the fact that food was Extra Spicy compared to Goa, even “no spice” was full of garlic and ginger so one or two of us suffered a little with digestive issues 😀. Drinks were pricey when you could purchase them. As it’s primarily a dry state, little or no alcohol is sold in local restaurants and there are no bars but a limited amount can be purchased from Government outlets, or in restaurants catering for Westerners.

Our 3.30am alarms went off, we dragged ourselves out of bed, checked out and collected our “breakfast takeaway bags” – fruit juice, an apple and a coleslaw sandwich, all promptly went in a bin!! An hour later we were deposited at the airport, said our goodbyes to our funny driver Jo, snoozed on the comfortable chairs for two hours before boarding our flight back to Goa. By midday, we’d returned to our apartments, offloaded bags, been out for breakfast and were heading back to bed for a few hours sleep – tired, happy, relaxed and in total awe of the sights and sounds of beautiful Kerala! 😍

Kerala Day 4 – We Are Sailing!

9 February 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 3 Comments

We woke to the sound of Indian cuckoo’s and bullfrogs and the sight of beautiful flowers in the hotel grounds, a relaxed hotel in a forest, on the outskirts of Thekkady. Breakfast was a very funny affair – buffet Indian style, served by a very gay young waiter who called us “my lovelies” and enjoyed having his derriere slapped by his colleagues 😄

Back on the road to the famous Alleppey, home to Kerala backwaters (a backwater is a part of a river in which there is little or no current) and our houseboat. The journey took a few hours, again passing through tea plantations, where pickers were wearing umbrella hats to protect themselves from the 30c sun. We were entertained by massive cow in a trailer being taken for a ride, for some reason we found that odd and hilarious, but this is Anything Goes India…..

Very soon the green plantations gave way to flat canal filled plains with large waterfront houses. We arrived at the boatyard to be greeted by the owner of the company, who showed us around his 100 year old family home before showing us onto one of his boats. The company own five boats of varying sizes, all used to be grain storage and transportation boats, now repurposed as luxury houseboats.

We were accompanied by a driver, chef and waiter, and were shown to our rooms! Another WOW moment!!!! Two large bedrooms and bathrooms, a lounge with floor to ceiling windows, upstairs dining room with a viewing deck at the front, a bathroom but also a jacuzzi and steam cabinet!!! Roll on relaxing!

Lunch was served as we pulled away, lots of fresh salads, fish, calamari, chicken, rice and fresh fruits! Out to the deck to admire the Riverside views, constantly grinning to ourselves when passers-by waved or listening to sounds coming from houses, churches, fields, birds and the river.

Kingfishers, egrets, kites and herons everywhere, as well as flying/jumping fish, fishermen, washer women, and children on bikes on the riverbanks.

We moored up in the evening, David and Graham went for a walk into the paddy fields whilst Di and I had a spa session! By the time we had all changed, dinner was served, another feast of chicken, sauces, rice, potato, salads and vegetables, followed by warm sweet homemade rice pudding. We all slept like babies that night, it was so quiet and dark, the boat slightly moving, rocking us to sleep.

Kerala Day 3 – Zigzags & Ups & Downs

6 February 2024 / Juliet Stratton

We left our amazing hillside hotel in Munnar and headed to our next location which was Thekkady. The travel agency itinerary makes it sound easy, “after breakfast, drive to Thekkady (4 hours) and check into your hotel before lunch”. In reality it took FIVE HOURS TO DO 55 MILES!!!!

What it doesn’t say is that the road between the two towns is running right across several mountain ranges, with massive gorges below, so we went up one side, over the top, down the other side, up again, along the ridge, and down again. 90 kilometres, about 55 miles of road that had straight stretches no more than 200 metres long – it gave us bum ache from sliding across our seats, and neck ache from looking over the driver at oncoming traffic, behind us at the narrow roads and below us at the rivers/waterfalls/ power stations and tiny villages.

And we often felt nauseous from all the tight twists and turns in the road, however, Jo was a fantastic careful driver and we felt very safe with him at the wheel. Jo kept us entertained with information on the farms we were going through, the hydro electric plants we saw, he told us more about his traditions and the fact that he was in a “break-up hangover” because he couldn’t marry his girlfriend of ten years as she was a different caste to him. His mother was actively on the lookout for a wife for him. Jo even sang us songs to keep us going!!!

On route, we stopped several times to stretch our legs and rebalanced the equilibrium. We stopped briefly at a Temple, where Jo took us around the grounds to explain their traditions and we passed quite a few more decorative temples.

We stopped for a coffee at Kalvari Mount, 1300m above sea level, a viewpoint over Idukki Dam, and again, it was a WOW moment!!! So high up, misty mountains, peace and tranquility (despite the bus load of schoolkids that had just arrived) and such beautiful colours!! The lake was stunning, clean and calm and the mountains so lush and green. We were duly rebalanced!

Sir Graham greeting his staunch followers again!

We passed through a very affluent area, full of stunning large houses all with huge sweeping driveways and manicured gardens.

Also passed through a cardamom plantation!

We finally arrived at our next hotel just in time for a very quick lunch then back out to try to catch the last scheduled boat trip up a river in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We missed it! Fully booked. Gone was our (slim) chance of seeing tigers. But instead, we took a Jeep safari!! Another first experience for Graham and Di.

The driver Shibu took us off road to the edge of the nature reserve and then up the sides of a mountain to the very top, where we overlooked a military airstrip, but was surrounded by nothing but beautiful mountains, trees and wildlife. It felt like we were on the top of the world!

The roads were steep, rutted and potholed, we negotiated some small streams and hung on extremely tightly at all times, necessary to stay inside the Jeep, such good fun!

We stopped on the way up at a small viewpoint where we looked across the lake and caught sight of several cute Nilgiri Langur monkeys in the trees (only 5000 in the World) and giant tadpoles in the water, giant as in as big as your hand!

On the way down we passed through another tea plantation, small villages, saw wild silk worms and eventually arrived back in the Reserve’s car park in time to see some elephants being fed and put to rest for the night. So despite not going into the Reserve, we managed to see monkeys, fish, silk worms and finally, elephants!!!

Dirty, wind swept and happy, we returned to our hotel and after going out to dinner we all slept well that night!!!

VIPs in Tea County

4 February 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

It was suggested to us that we visit a resort hotel called Tea County in Munnar, so we saved the best until last and had dinner there on our last night in this area.

“Tea County is a Resort Hotel in Munnar, amongst enchanting mist clad hills, quaint cottages, fragrant tea gardens and mist-draped mornings that are hallmarks of Munnar. For years the cool and picturesque town of Munnar was the summer retreat of the British and it still retains the charm of a colonial past. The destination is also home to the only sandalwood forest in Kerala”. THIS IS THE HOTEL’S BLURB!

And rightly so!! We felt we were back in colonial Raj in the 1940s, splendour exuded every space, polished marble floors, sweeping staircases, sumptuous sofas, gardens full of rose bushes and the hugest dining room I’ve ever seen .. ..the Chef even came out to talk to us about our menu choices before they were cooked!

Parquet floors and Plaster carved ceilings at its best

We had a great meal in spectacular surroundings. We felt like Very Important People!!!!

Kerala Day 2 – Tea and Goats

4 February 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 1 Comment

We woke in the morning to the most amazing view, our hotel was perched on the side of a hill, surrounded by tea bushes, waterfalls and a river below. The sun was coming up over the mountains in front of is, at about 6.30am, birds were swirling about and the morning mist was rising, it was simply stunning! Sadly we didn’t have time to indulge in the infinity pool or the spa, we had a busy day ahead!

MUNNAR as we know it was established around 1880 by British John Daniel Munroe, who was sent there to settle border disputes but fell in love with the lush forests and gentle hardworking inhabitants.

Munroe and two other Brits established the tea and coffee plantations, taking care to leave the land structure complete, working around the forests and its flora and fauna. Moonu’ means ‘three’ and ‘Aru’ means ‘river’ as the town was established where three rivers meet. The area is at a height of around 1,500 m to 2,695m above sea level and was once the summer capital of the British in South India. The soil is so rich and the weather so perfect that every scrap of land has tea bushes planted on it, along with eucalyptus trees, cardamom and lemon grass.

First stop, Eravikulam National Park inside a tea plantation with the most fabulous views. We took a golf cart (it was too hot to walk) up the 3kms to the top to see wild deer (too fast for pictures), Nigrili Tahr (endangered mountain Goats only found in this Park) and a plant that only flowers once every 12 years, the blue Neelakurinji flower. We also saw Fresh Elephant dung!!! Sadly no sight of the beasts themselves.

The views at the top, which was at over 6000 feet above sea level, were spectacular! It was calmly serene, beautiful and so colourful.

Graham trialled picking tea leaves – he was unsuccessful at being offered a fulltime job!

The views got greener and the atmosphere became quieter the further we went up.

Finally we came across the endangered and rare Negrili Tahr Goats…..

Finally, a photo stop at the top of the tourist trail…..

On the way down, we got very excited when we saw some fresh elephant poo, sadly that’s as close as we got!

We then visited a Tea Museum, we saw how the picked leaves are crushed several times through spiked rollers, it’s at this point it smells like tea. The bushes and leaves have no smell at all. The crushed leaves are then dried and sifted before being mechanically sorted and packaged as leaf tea or tea dust.

Old artefacts were on display and we watched a fascinating film on the history of the establishment of the farms.

After lunch we took a drive out to a lake and stopped at Echo Point, Graham duly verified why it was called that! Sounds echoed around the mountains, which again were beautifully green.